Pa. lawmakers continue debate
HARRISBURG — A long-running partisan divide over taxes and education spending was repeatedly evident on Sunday as Pennsylvania lawmakers worked through the weekend in a rush to pass budget legislation in the days before a constitutional deadline.
The Senate moved closer to a final vote on a GOP-drafted state budget plan that would add modestly to education funding without raising any new taxes, while House Democrats defeated funding for universities because they deemed the amounts inadequate.
The main budget bill, which passed the House without a single Democratic vote on Saturday, could see a final vote in the Senate Tuesday. Gov. Tom Wolf has signaled he will veto all or parts of it.
The Senate also advanced a liquor privatization bill, which along with changes to public-sector pensions are the Republicans’ policy priorities during what is traditionally the Legislature’s heaviest deal-making season. The liquor bill also could get a final vote in the coming days.
The Republicans’ strong majorities in the House and Senate are moving ahead on their own agenda after talks with the Democratic governor have failed to produce a compromise.
In the House, the GOP did not reach the supermajority needed to approve funding for Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln universities, although that topic will almost certainly be revisited.
Republicans reminded Democrats they had all voted against a bill that combined all of Wolf’s tax proposals, even though Democratic leaders derided that vote as a Republican-orchestrated stunt designed to embarrass the governor.
“If you want to spend more money, you have to be able to raise taxes and appropriate more revenue to do so,” said Rep. Garth Everett, R-Lycoming.
“We had the opportunity to do that here in this chamber.”
A $30 billion-plus state budget bill passed the state House on Saturday, 112-77, with all Democrats and two Republicans voting against it.
